Real Estate Talk

Last week, on May 22, the Bob Rivers radio talk show brought up the topic of Refin and the MLS turf war. The debate was mainly about information and consumers affinity for companies that provide it. You can listen to the show via podcast from the show website.

Listening to conversations, where ever they take place (radio, Starbucks, blogs) provides a look inside the mindset of today’s consumers. If you listen without becoming defensive, you hear what is really being said. Check out The Buzz Machine by Jeff Jarvis and John Cooks Venture blog for more examples.

If you follow the common thread through these discussions, consumers are saying that they want access to information. They like Zillow. All the discussion about how bad it is – how far off the zestimates are – doesn’t really make a difference to consumers who like using Zillow and its features. Most consumers want to gather information on their own. They like Redfin. The more information a company gives, the more the consumer trusts them. At this point, consumers are just happy with information. They don’t seem to care that it isn’t “as good” as the agents CMA or the agents great depth of knowledge about the local area. An agents knowledge is meaningless to a consumer if they have to pick the brain to get a piece of it out.